”Doctor, I have varicose veins in my legs, can I exercise or not?” This is a question that is often asked in clinical work. Let’s start by understanding how varicose veins occur? Due to gravity, water always flows downward. And in the human body, the return of blood from the lower extremities to the heart through the veins against gravity requires the help of the venous valves and calf muscles. Simply put, the calf is a pressure pump: when the muscle contracts, the high pressure generated drives the venous blood back toward the heart; and the venous valve is like a valve that ensures that the blood flows in one direction from bottom to top. Then, if the venous valves are damaged for various reasons, the venous blood in the lower extremities flows backwards, producing varicose veins. When the human body is exercising, such as jogging, brisk walking, swimming, and proper ball games, the calf muscles contract, which is good for the reflux of lower limb veins and reduces the symptoms of varicose veins. Of course, not all exercises are good – such as the popular weight-bearing muscle training in recent years, it is not suitable for people who already suffer from varicose veins – when weight-bearing, due to the increase in abdominal pressure, which increases the burden on the lower limb venous valves and accelerates the broken ring of the valves that may aggravate varicose veins. Therefore, jogging, brisk walking, swimming, and proper ball games are good for preventing varicose veins and relieving the symptoms brought about by varicose veins, while weight training instead accelerates the occurrence of varicose veins. Of course, if valve destruction and varicose veins in the lower extremities have already occurred, there is no way to reverse them, and you need to seek help from a professional vascular surgeon to relieve the disease through surgery.